India’s exports rose to a five-month high of 11 per cent in March on account of higher growth mainly in pharma, chemicals and engineering sectors, marking the outbound shipments at $331 billion for FY 2018-19, official data showed.

Merchandise exports in March stood at $32.55 billion as against $29.32 billion in the same month last year.

This is the best growth rate for exports since October 2018, when shipments grew by 17.86 per cent.

Imports rose by 1.44 per cent to $43.44 billion in March 2019.

However, the trade deficit - the difference between exports and imports - narrowed to $10.89 billion during the month under review as compared to $13.51 billion in March 2018.

Oil and gold imports rose by 5.55 per cent and 31.22 per cent to $11.75 billion and $3.27 billion, respectively, in March 2019.

For the full fiscal, imports rose by 8.99 per cent to $507.44 billion, widening the trade deficit to $176.42 billion as against $162 billion in 2017-18.

“Through secular growth over the last three financial years, following the major downturn in the face of the global slowdown, merchandise exports for 2018-19 are estimated at $331.02 billion, the highest ever, surpassing the earlier peak of $314.4 billion achieved in 2013-14. This has been achieved in a challenging global environment,” the commerce ministry said in a statement.

During the full fiscal, the sectors that recorded healthy growth include petroleum (28 per cent), plastic (25.6 per cent), chemicals (22 per cent), pharmaceuticals (11 per cent) and engineering (6.36 per cent).

Data showed that oil imports in April-March 2018-19 grew by 29.27 per cent to $140.47 billion, while non-oil imports were up by 2.82 per cent to $366.97 billion during the fiscal.

The ministry also said that total exports (goods and services combined) have been growing since 2016-17 and have surpassed the $500 billion mark in 2018-19 for the first time.

The overall estimated exports (merchandise and services) have reached a new peak of $535.4 billion this year, attaining a growth of 7.97 per cent.

However, as the data showed, services exports in February dipped by 6.54 per cent to $16.58 billion. Imports during the month too contracted by 11 per cent to $9.81 billion.